Yeah America! Good job.

Above photos are from a place that is close to my heart. It is the first property that I own! Well I am part owner. In October Chris and I bought this cottage just north of Montreal in partnership with Chris' old friend Conor. We are going back up this weekend and I can't wait. The birds, the smells, the walks, the lake, and so much more just make me so relaxed when I get up there.

Joerg of Conscientious posted this week on the aesthetic or visual language used in photojournalism and how as viewers it does not engage us any more. I found it fascinating. Here is the first instalment and the second.

Piles of stuff in the back alleys of Montreal.

I have disabled the comments function on my blog. They just didn't seem to be much use. Most people who wanted to discuss the images ended up emailing me. And please continue doing this! You can reach me at kate@katehutchinson.com . Thanks Annie for your most recent comment all the same!

This is our fish Dostoyevsky who has been living on the red counter for some time now. Vet in training Jackie says that fish shouldn't be close to a window. I disagree. For one I don't understand how anything could dislike a little window light. And for two I don't think that vets know that much about fish. Sorry Jacks! Either way he's been thriving there for the past 5 months.

Terrible photos of the show in situ. These really don't do the space, the overall show or the prints justice. Oh well, what can you do. The print images are 19x19 inches layed out along the four walls of The Visual Voice's square space.

A photographer bride.

Also Bettina Forget who runs the Visual Voice Gallery wrote a blog post on my show. Check it out here. Thanks Bettina!

Summer pool noodle.
I went swimming in the lake yesterday and I can tell you that it did not look or feel anything like this!


Big voting day tomorrow Canadians. If you're still not sure who you want to vote for this website might help:

http://www.voteforenvironment.ca/

It could easily be called "vote for arts and culture". Don't give the conservatives any free rides!

So far the show has been a great success and surprisingly this has been the most popular image. I've always liked this image but I do prefer some of the other ones. I think the framing lines and sky, the glowing railway ties, the beautiful light, and the fact that this image is less of a portrait and more of a landscape, all help the viewer get into it and enjoy it.

I am so thankful that so many friends and strangers have been kind enough to write about and announce the show in their different venues. Aislinn Leggett has a behind the scenes "Why am I marrying him?" image here and wrote about the project here. Alexi Hobbs from The Montreal State of Mind wrote about it here, and the lovely Joanna Goddard from the big NYC wrote about it here. Lastly Stacey Dewolf wrote a little piece about the show for The Mirror here.

Virtual promo for you all (click to enlarge) and a new image along with it.

Here are a few circles for you. Sorry that I haven't been that present recently. The exhibit as well as other things have been keeping me quite busy. Speaking of my exhibit it's only 10 days till the vernissage! Thursday October 9th is the big day. That night I will be hosting whomever wishes to drop by between 6 and 9 pm. The address is 372 St Catherine Street West (Belgo Building), suite #421. (in Montreal of course)

Church Table

When taking the above photos I was heavily influenced by a new aesthetic that I have been noticing more and more in the past year. I don't know what to call it but the images I'm talking about are often dark; can include fire, crystals, rainbows or prisms; and seem to be about fantasy. To see what I'm talking about check out Noel Rodo-Vankeulen's Nocturne series, Hannah Whitaker, Tim Davis, and Jason Lazarus. I don't have a firm grasp on what this is all about or where it comes from but upon talking to an old photo prof of mine about a class that he is creating (on how new developments in photographic technology have affected our aesthetic throughout photographic history) a lightbulb lit up in my head. Does this have to do with the advent of digital photography? Since digital cameras don't have the latitude that film does we often underexpose in order to keep some information in the highlights. This results in overall darker images and maybe this is why we are seeing photographers embrace deep and dark shadows. Or maybe it is simply due to the fact that shooting digitally we rely on computer chips and zeros and ones, and how the camera that used to just be a box has now become a magical thing. Are photographers trying to express how this technology shift is psychologically effecting their relationship to the medium? Or maybe it's about the prevalence of Photoshop in photography? Or maybe it's the influence of video games? Or maybe it's none of these things. Maybe it's about something much deeper that I'm just not getting, and as Joerg says at the end of the day the medium shouldn't be the message. What do you think?

I can't sleep so these dreamlike moths seem like the right reference. This image was taken in a campsite bathroom looking up through the skylight. All the moths in this particular bathroom were white, like little snowflakes floating around (that's the tiredness talking). And all the moths just outside the doors of the bathroom were the usual brown. As a lapsed biologist I found this mini lesson in evolution to be fascinating.

Former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. At his book launch about a year ago this week.

These days a lot of art, photo, design, etc. bloggers to the south are using their blogs to talk politics, and I don't blame them. If not now then when. Well we too have an upcoming election and should the Conservatives once again take the lead there is no doubt that arts and culture funding will continue to suffer, if not suffocate. Check out this open letter to the Prime Minister by Wajdi Mouawad (courtesy of Carl Wilson's blog).

3 more f/start photographers from this summer.

Some teens from this summer's f/start. For an explanation of f/start check out August 3rd' s post.

I am definitely of the Everything Is Interesting school of thought and therefore here are 2 ceilings for you.

When all else fails the kitchen counter is always there for me as a constant source of inspiration.

2 religious processions from my neighbourhood this summer. The top 2 are the Portuguese Catholic community and the bottom 3 are the Hassidic community.

Cars from Georgia, Florida, and Virginia, respectively.

Disguise number 2 for a kid who lives on my block. Check out June 27th for his previous costume. Mr Bean is out and Spidey is in. I also saw him as Batman recently. I'll have to capture that before he becomes something else.

More from this summer's Americade in Lake George, NY.

Images from Lake George during this year's Americade.

On the first day of this summer's road trip we stopped for lunch in Lake George and to our surprise the place was full of motorcycles. Well it wasn't really a surprise because this was the third year in a row that we stumbled upon Americade on our way through New York State. So I have been to Lake George 3 times and have never seen it without thousands and thousands of bickers and their bikes! We now know that Americade takes place during the first week of June every summer. We only spent an hour or 2 in town so right after lunch I ran around asking people if I could photograph them with their bikes. In truth I'm not that happy with the results. I wish I could have spent more time there in order to really capture this amazing group of people.

A photo I took of author Heather O'Neill was featured in this month's L'Actualite.